1993 World Disaster

1993: Disasters

AEROSPACE

. Afghanistan. More than 70 passengers were killed when a military plane
crashed near the town of Tashkurgan on April 27.

2.Colombia. A Boeing 727 on its way from Panama City to Medellín,
Colombia, crashed near a Colombian mountaintop on May 19. All 132 people on
board the SAM Airlines flight lost their lives.

3.Gabon. A military transport plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean
near Libreville, Gabon, on April 28, killing 29 people, including 18 Zambian
soccer players en route to Senegal to play a second-round qualifying match for
the World Cup.

4.Georgia. A passenger plane was hit by a heat-seeking missile as it
approached the Sukhumi airport on September 22. More than 80 people were
killed. The missile was fired by Abkhazian separatists; a day earlier the
rebels had downed another plane at the same airport, killing 28.

5.India. An Indian Airlines jet crashed in western India, about 200
miles northeast of Bombay, soon after takeoff April 26; at least 75 people were
killed.

6.Iowa. Eight people, including South Dakota Governor George
Mickelson, were killed when their twin-engine airplane crashed into a silo near
Dubuque on April 19.

7.Iran. An Iran Air passenger jet collided with a Russian military
aircraft on February 8, shortly after takeoff, over the army base of Karaj. All
132 aboard the passenger jet died, but the two pilots in the Sukhoi fighter jet
ejected safely before the collision. The crash was blamed on faulty radar.

8.Macedonia. A Pal Air jet crashed into a field seconds after taking off
from the Skopje airport during a March 5 snowstorm. Seventy-seven people aboard
died.

9.Macedonia. An Avioimpex jet collided with a Soviet Yak 42 in the
mountains near Ohrid on November 20. Heavy snowstorms disabled the rescue
crews; 115 people lost their lives.

10.South Korea.
A South Korean airliner crashed into a mountain after heavy winds and rains
kept it from landing in the city of Mokpo on July 27. Sixty-six passengers were
killed.

11.Tajikistan.
A Tajik passenger jet crashed during takeoff in Khorog on August 28, killing
some 35 people.

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

12.Argentina.
A fire in a Buenos Aires disco on December 20 killed 17 teenagers.

13.California.
Nearly 20 wildfires, fanned by Santa Ana winds of 40 to 60 miles per hour,
roared out of control across six counties in Southern California, from Ventura
to the Mexican border. The blazes began October 26 and continued for days; some
200,000 acres were burnt and 700 houses destroyed. On November 2 another
fast-moving fire, believed to be caused by arson, swept through Malibu, burning
about 35,000 acres and 200 homes. Three people died in the fires.

14.China. An
inferno engulfed a three-story Tangshan department store on February 14,
killing 79 people. Officials blamed improper safety precautions by welders who
were working in the store.

15.China. A toy
factory in Kuiyong caught fire on November 19, killing more than 80 people and
injuring more than 30. Locked doors and windows prevented employees from
escaping the flames.

16.Illinois.
A fire in a transient hotel in Chicago on March 16 killed 16 people.

17.Senegal. A tanker
truck filled with liquid ammonia exploded at a peanut-processing plant in Dakar
on March 24, killing at least 60 people.

18.Thailand.
More than 200 workers died trying to flee a burning Bangkok toy factory on May
10. Security guards said the plant's doors had been locked to prevent
pilfering.

19.Thailand.
Ten workers were killed when they were trapped in a Bangkok textile factory
fire on July 6.

20.Turkey. An
avalanche of refuse and debris buried and killed about 40 people on April 28,
when methane gas at an Istanbul garbage dump exploded.

21.Venezuela.
A natural gas pipeline exploded in Las Tejerias on September 28 when it was
ruptured by state telephone workers. The blast, right next to a major highway,
burned a passenger bus and several cars and killed about 50 people.

MARINE

22.Congo. About 150
Zairians were killed in Brazzaville on March 2 when the ferry they were
boarding pulled away from shore prematurely, breaking the gangway.

23.Germany. A Polish
ferry capsized in the Baltic Sea near the German island of Rügen on January 14
when it was struck by heavy winds. More than 50 ferry passengers were killed.

24.Haiti. An
overcrowded ferry sank off Haiti's southern peninsula on February 17 when
passengers dashed from the open deck to a tarpaulin to escape a rainstorm. The
Red Cross accounted for 285 survivors out of 800 to 1,200 passengers.

25.Malaysia.
Two fishing boats collided in the Strait of Malacca on December 19; 49 people
were feared dead.

26.Philippines.
More than 225 people drowned on July 2, when three boats capsized during a
religious procession on a river near Manila. The three boats had previously
been lashed together to carry a 30-foot-high pagoda.

27.South Korea.
On October 10, approximately 285 people drowned in the Yellow Sea when a ferry
capsized and sank during a heavy storm.

NATURAL

28.Algeria. A
mudslide in Oran killed at least 12 people on December 25; more than 45 were
injured.

29.Bangladesh.
Gale-force winds swept across the country on March 26-27. More than 300 people
were believed to have drowned, over 250 of them in an overturned ferry, and at
least 25,000 people were left homeless.

30.Colombia.
A mudslide swept through the town of Dabeiba on December 17, demolishing 200
houses and killing about 50 people.

31.Ecuador. A
landslide, set off by heavy rains, buried a gold-mining village in the south on
May 10, killing about 200 people.

32.Europe. Heavy
rains caused severe flooding of the Rhine River and several of its tributaries
in December, killing at least seven people and causing massive evacuations in
Cologne and Bonn, Germany, and in parts of eastern France, the Netherlands, and
Belgium.

33.Honduras.
Flooding in the provinces of Atlàntida, Colon, Cortès, and Yoro swept away
entire towns in early November, and as many as 400 people were feared dead.

34.India. A
devastating earthquake hit south-central Maharashtra State on September 30,
killing as many as 30,000 people and leaving thousands more homeless. The quake
measured 6.4 on the Richter scale.

35.Japan. Tidal
waves as high as 30 feet smashed Okushiri Island and the southwestern coast of
Hokkaido on July 12, killing more than 200 people; the tidal waves were caused
by an earthquake in the Sea of Japan.

36.Malaysia.
A 12-story condominium collapsed in Kuala Lumpur on December 11 when heavy rain
caused a landslide; 25 people died.

37.Malaysia.
More than 20,000 people were evacuated from the Northeast because of heavy
flooding in late December; parts of Perak and Johor states were also submerged.
At least 14 people died.

38.Mexico and California.
Heavy rains lashed Tijuana, Mexico, and southern California on January 14,
causing mudslides and killing more than 35 people.

39.Papua New Guinea.
On October 13 an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale hit the north
coast of the island near the town of Madang, provoking massive mudslides.
Another quake, measuring 6.3, shook the same area on October 16. About 100
people were believed dead after the two quakes.

40.Philippines.
Mayon Volcano exploded without warning on February 2, spewing ash 3 miles into
the air and sending boulders crashing down on nearby villages. About 70 people
were killed.

41.South Asia.
Summer monsoons caused floods and landslides in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal,
flooding fields and driving thousands of people from their homes. More than
2,000 were killed.

42.United States.
A fierce storm hit the entire eastern United States on March 12 and 13, killing
an estimated 250 people.

43.United States.
During the summer months persistent, heavy rainfall caused the Mississippi and
Missouri rivers and their tributaries to overflow, inundating millions of acres
of land in nine Midwest states and claiming 50 lives; damage was estimated up
to $20 billion.

44.Venezuela.
Tropical Storm Bret touched off mudslides and flooding in Caracas on August 8,
killing at least 100 shantytown dwellers and injuring another 500.

45.Vietnam. In
October and November flooding in the central plains of Vietnam caused extensive
damage to land and property; more than 120 people died.

RAIL

46.Alabama.
Forty-seven people in all died when Amtrak's Sunset Limited derailed while
crossing a bridge over Big Bayou Canot near Mobile on September 22. It was the
worst rail accident in the United States in more than 20 years.

47.Armenia. Thirty
people were killed and dozens were injured when a commuter train struck a
parked freight train in northern Armenia on May 27.

48.China. A bus
that tried to speed across an unprotected crossing was struck by a train in
Liaoning province on January 31, killing 66 of the bus passengers and injuring
some 30 more.

49.Indiana. Two
trains collided near Gary on January 18, when the engineer of one of the trains
failed to stop for a red warning light. Seven people lost their lives.

50.Indonesia.
On November 2, two passenger trains collided on the outskirts of Jakarta during
rush hour, killing as many as 20 people and injuring 150.

51.South Korea.
A passenger train fell off collapsed tracks into a gaping hole near Pusan on
March 28, killing more than 70 people and injuring about 120.

TRAFFIC

52.Brazil. A bus
carrying Argentinian tourists struck a wild animal and plunged into a brook in
southern Brazil on March 3, killing ten passengers.

53.Brazil. A bus on
its way to a religious celebration collided with a truck on a southern highway
on June 10, killing 33 people. Two ambulances that answered the emergency call
also collided; one ambulance driver was killed.

54.Great Britain.
A touring bus collided with a van and plummeted down a 20-foot embankment near
Canterbury on November 10. The driver and nine American passengers lost their
lives.

55.Great Britain.
Thirteen people, including several schoolchildren, died when the minibus in
which they were riding collided with a parked truck in the Warwickshire area on
November 18.

56.Mexico. A tourist
bus slipped out of control on a wet roadway, hit a power pole, then burst into
flames near Cancún on January 4; 25 people were killed.

MISCELLANEOUS

57.Bosnia. At least
12 Bosnian Muslims were killed aboard United Nations transport vehicles
evacuating people from Srebrenica in late March. The victims were crushed or
suffocated in the push of people seeking to escape a Serbian blockade.

58.Egypt. At least
34 people were killed when a huge piece of rock broke off a cliff and fell on
houses outside Cairo on December 14.

59.India. A wild
elephant rampaged through villages in northeastern India on August 25 and 26,
killing more than 40 people.

60.North Korea.
About 200 soldiers, acting as construction workers, were killed on March 25
when a high-rise building in Pyongyang collapsed on them.

61.Tajikistan.
Twenty-four people died after eating bread made from tainted wheat in southern
Tajikistan during late 1992 and early 1993.

62.Thailand.
The six-story Royal Plaza Hotel in Nakhon Ratchasima collapsed on August 13,
killing more that 100 people and injuring hundreds more.

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